SOHC.co.uk Forums > The Black Bomber Board
1969 CL450 US Barn Find Restoration
royhall:
Are you planning on doing a full nut and bolt restoration?
MrDavo:
--- Quote ---Are you planning on doing a full nut and bolt restoration?
--- End quote ---
Not in the OCD 'replace / refurbish anything that doesn't look brand new and check every bolt head has the correct symbol' way that I approached the CB750, more a 'sympathetic restoration', Roy.
I have realised I can't be too picky, although I wanted a bike with the K1 tank and side panels, checking out my VIN, CL450-1018xxx its actually a K2, it should have the tank with a white 'Honda' emblem, gold stripe and the big gold triangular badges on the side panels. If the bodywork was as good as the chrome I reckon its been used to tart up another bike. It is a November 1969 bike though, so I reckon I'll get away with it, I'll also use an early seat, mine is the K2 version with pleats.
I think I'll go for candy blue, when I get my 750 stuff back from Menno I can use the box again to send him the bodywork. The fuel that came out of the tank was filthy, and it cant have run too well with a petcock filter full of mud. Better that than dry and rusty though.
Ash, that's an impressive clock mountain there, I reckon the speedo gearing may be different on the 350 though, they are all a different part number to the 450 versions. Certainly the CB350 had an 18" front wheel, CLs were 19".
Any road up, the late speedo I have looks NOS, given that I'm not being over picky, before I saw your post I ordered a used later tacho to match it to give me a matching pair, I hope, even if not strictly right they should look good. I do need a set of bars and that cable guide that annoys me when I see it on a CB750, I didn't realise it was a CL part. The bars are the same as a CL350 amd SL350 though, you don't have a set do you Ash? There are plenty in the States, but the postage is far more than the part cost, they can't be the easiest (or lightest) thing to post.
My headlamp shell is broken around the edge, but I found a NOS one on eBay Australia that will arrive one day.
I pulled the motor yesterday, the plating on the exhaust is almost as good where you can't see it, and looking at the carbs its hard to beleive they are nearly 50 years old! They have that 'mother of pearl' effect that has sadly been lost on my CB750.
At some stage the rear brake lever has been bent and someone has knocked it back to vaguely where it ahould be by beating seven bells out of it with a big hammer, all the marks are still there.
I've always said that the trouble with 'barn finds' is that as well as putting right the ravages of time, you still have to fix whatever fault that made Bubba put it in the barn in the first place. I reckon with my bike he didn't get so far, due to the lack of a decent 12mm socket - one of the super tight head steady nuts was completely rounded, the rest of the engine bolts were completely untouched, or at least undamaged.
I cut the bugger off, I found that using an angle grinder very close to the wiring loom helps one concentrate.
He'd clearly never heard of JIS, most crossheads that come out for servicing are chewed beyond belief, some may have to be drilled out, and he had been in the clutch cover, or a real mechanic had, as all the screws are allen heads there. My guess is shagged gear selectors may have stopped the bike, they are known for it, and it's engine out and cases split to fix it - when he failed at the first hurdle in getting the motor out, he just gave up and got another toy.
Wriggling the motor out of the frame was a right PITA, probably there is a knack to it, I should have watched a Youtube video first, as it was we struggled (I borrowed my large mate Leigh, a 6'7" human engine hoist and veteran of CB750 and Harley engine lifts in the past).
Graham will be disappointed to find out I don't need a new engine stand, as it almost fits in the CB750 one, certainly enough to make it 'strong and stable' (Copyright T. May) enough to work on.
JamesH:
Great start there and looks a really solid basis to rennovate...good work.
MCTID:
My thoughts as well.........although it's sometimes really surprising how well some of these old bikes have stood up to the ravages of 40 years of sitting in sh1te.
Looking forward to seeing all the good (and bad) bits of this rebuild.
Bubba (and his mates) didn't take too well to Metric and JIS fixings did they ! but 'Nils carborundum bast*rdum' always prevails in the end.
Good luck and please post plenty of pics as you progress.
MrDavo:
Thanks for your comments, I only got an hour in the garage last night, I was hoping to get the head off but stopped when I realised my chain splitter hadn't a hope in hell of getting in the space available.
I started by taking the cam covers off, the points were as new (though the ones on the right don't seem to meet as square as you'd like), but numb nuts here took the inlet cover off with a bit of a struggle before realising I'd just pulled a camshaft bearing, and the cam was now cocked at a jaunty angle with one of the valves open! I hope I haven't bent a valve already, time will tell, anyway I put the cover back on so I can turn the engine over without damaging anything (else?).
Like many other things, the cams were in remarkably good condition. As I turned the motor, fresh oil ran down the lobe of the r/h exhaust cam, so there is still pressure. (I haven't dropped the oil yet).
I peered in through the plugholes, on the up side what I saw of the valves was good, nice seating surfaces, but now I am more anxious to get the head off, as all is not well with the right hand piston crown - not something I could get a photo of, but I can see multiple silver marks in the black carbon, either someone poking the piston with a pointy thing through the plughole (but why?) or detonation - maybe a consequence of running the bike with a fuel filter full of mud! While the left hand carb had crystals of crud from long evaporated petrol, the right hand side float bowl was clean and bone dry.
I am now worried by those photos of mullahed 350 heads we've seen on here recently, I don't mind shelling out for a new piston or a rebore, but please don't let the head be a mess.. :( Bubba was clearly after something with his ill fitting tool kit, before he slung the bike in a corner and walked away forever.
I found the soft link, and when it was on the position in the photos the cams were lined up with their timing marks.
I will be fitting a new chain, from later reading on the twins forum, it seems I will be OK grinding the pin ends and drifting the link out - I will be cleaning everything anyway but I'll shove a load of paper or cloth into the cam tunnel to catch the swarf.
Feck knows what I'll use to re rivet the new chain but that's a long way down the thread from here.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version